Editorial: Comparative Education and (De)Colonial Entanglements: Towards More Sustainable and Equitable Learning Futures

The last several decades have seen a global resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern scholarship as a way to confront the persisting modern/colonial legacies in education. This special issue brings together a collection of nine articles to critically interrogate (de)colonial entanglements in comparative education by addressing three questions. Who benefits from and who is punished by the colonial legacies of knowledge production in comparative education? How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable and just (trans)local and multilingual research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against coloniality? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond the Western modern/colonial logic? The articles in this special issue challenge the current preoccupation of many researchers, educators, and policy-makers with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices”– inviting comparative education researchers to articulate decolonial, antisexist, antiracist, and regenerative alternatives that recognize the interdependence of people, place, and planet, as well as the importance of cultural change. Collectively, this special issue aims at creating a space for welcoming critical and creative scholarship to radically reimagine – and ultimately transform – education for more sustainable and equitable global futures.  The last several decades have seen a global resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern scholarship as a way to confront the persisting modern/colonial legacies in education. This special issue brings together a collection of nine articles to critically interrogate (de)colonial entanglements in comparative education by addressing three questions. Who benefits from and who is punished by the colonial legacies of knowledge production in comparative education? How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable and just (trans)local and multilingual research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against coloniality? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond the Western modern/colonial logic? The articles in this special issue challenge the current preoccupation of many researchers, educators, and policy-makers with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices”– inviting comparative education researchers to articulate decolonial, antisexist, antiracist, and regenerative alternatives that recognize the interdependence of people, place, and planet, as well as the importance of cultural change. Collectively, this special issue aims at creating a space for welcoming critical and creative scholarship to radically reimagine – and ultimately transform – education for more sustainable and equitable global futures.

Who Needs Global Citizenship Education? A Review of the Literature on Teacher Education

Given the seemingly ever-increasing scholarly production about the ideas and ideals of global citizenship education (GCE), it is not surprising those discussions started to gain influence in teacher education (TE) debates. In this study, we examine the discourses that tacitly shape the meanings of GCE within the contemporary academic literature on TE. After analyzing the peer-reviewed scholarship published from 2003 to 2018, we identified patterns in how GCE for TE was described and defended, beyond the differences in their conceptual frameworks. The dominant trend found is to frame GCE as a redemptive educational solution to global problems. This framing requires teachers to embrace a redemptive narrative following a model of rationality based on altruistic, hyperrationalized and overly romanticized ideals. Ultimately, TE literature contributes to the configuration of an excessively naïve discourse that tends to ignore the neoliberal context in which both GCE and TE take place today

Imagining a Post-COVID-19 Global Citizenship Education

RESUMEN: La pandemia del COVID 19 ha creado condiciones sin precedentes en todas las áreas de la vida. A medida que la suspensión de las actividades escolares se ha convertido en ?la nueva normalidad?, numerosos expertos y formadores de opinión se han apresurado a lanzar sus recomendaciones a gobiernos y organizaciones educativas para normalizar las operaciones escolares. En este contexto novedoso, analizamos las propuestas para expandir el modelo de Educación para la Ciudadanía Global (ECG) que está siendo cada vez más apoyada por organizaciones internacionales, gobiernos y académicos. En este artículo, sostenemos que la orientación redentora que los modelos y propuestas de ECG han desarrollado en las últimas décadas resulta muy limitada para entender y resolver problemas actuales como la restricción de derechos de privacidad de la ciudadanía o el fortalecimiento de los nacionalismos excluyentes. En cambio, se necesitan modelos más realistas de ECG. Este documento concluye con nuevas preguntas para robustecer el debate y las alternativas para imaginar una ECG realista y no redentora.ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented conditions in all areas of social life and as the suspension of schooling became "the new normal," numerous experts and opinion-makers rushed to voice their recommendations to governments and educational organizations for normalizing schooling operations. In light of this worldwide crisis, we re-evaluate proposals to expand the model of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) that have received increasing attention and support from both international organizations, governments, and scholars. In this article, we argue that the predominately redemptive nature of GCE models and proposals since the mid-1990s cannot handle global problems associated with the current pandemic such as the restriction of citizen?s privacy rights or the strengthening of exclusionary nationalistic messaging. Instead, more realistic models of GCE are needed. This paper concludes with new questions to strengthen the debate and alternatives for imagining a non-redemptive and more realistic GCE

La “terca” pertinencia de la pedagogía del oprimido

The amount and continuity of publications on and about Paulo Freire provides evidence about his persistence and global relevance. At times where books on pedagogy are forgotten almost as soon as they are printed and considering that Freire’s most important works were published in the decades 1960 and 1970, and the myriad of disputes that accompanied that work, the persistence of a book such as Pedagogy Oppressed, is somehow "estrange." Based on reflections of students in education, this article presents six reasons for why Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the most celebrated book by Freire and his ideas remain stubbornly in place.Tomando como evidencia la cantidad y continuidad de las publicaciones sobre y acerca de Paulo Freire es fácil de constatar su persistencia y relevancia nivel mundial.En momentos donde los libros sobre pedagogía son olvidados casi al mismo tiempo en que son impresos y considerando que los trabajos más importantes de la obra Freireana fueron publicados en las décadas de 1960 y 1970, y el sinnúmero de controversias que acompañaron esos trabajos, la persistencia de un trabajo como Pedagogía del Oprimido, es de alguna manera “extraña”. A partir de reflexiones de estudiantes de pedagogía este artículo presenta seis razones por las cuales Pedagogía del Oprimido, la prinicipal obra pedagógica de Freire y sus ideas siguen tercamente vigentes

NEPC Review: Our Next Assignment: Where Americans Stand on Public K-12 Education (Public Agenda, November 2018)

Public Agenda compiled public opinion surveys to show where the American public stands on education issues. Their report notes the importance of gauging current public understanding of education in the nation, particularly given the three major policy changes in the past 10 years: Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and the Every Student Succeeds Act. While this publication makes a unique contribution in its gathering of many surveys into a single report and its inclusion of interviews with employers, the lack of clarity in its methods makes many of its conclusions questionable. The report is inconsistent in how it addresses disaggregated data and respondents from different demographic groups (e.g., race, class, political affiliation), resulting in an inability to generalize to the population or to any subgroup. Therefore, the conclusions are cursory and incomplete, requiring further study and research.</p

Os Paradoxos da Educação para Cidadania Global na Formação Docente

RESUMO: Propostas de Educação para Cidadania Global (ECG) são frequentemente apresentadas como se derivaram de processos quase-naturais de evolução pedagógica. Nesse pensamento evolutivo, a ECG representa um estágio mais avançado de inovação pedagógica e, consequentemente, aparece como o melhor e mais abrangente modelo educacional. É importante apontar que no período 1990-2019 duas tendências simultâneas procuram desenvolver modelos de cidadania diferentes. Se a ECG procura desenvolver um/a cidadão global cosmopolita outras propostas pedagógicas apontam a transformar as noções de cidadania dando prioridade aos direitos de um "consumidor global" neoliberal sobre os direitos "cidadãos globais/cívicos". Este artigo discute 62 artigos sobre ECG e identifico o predomínio de uma orientação pedagógica redentora idealizada que tem muitas limitações e fundamentalmente não confronta às opções consumistas oferecidas pelos modelos pedagógicos de orientação neoliberais.ABSTRACT: Proposals for Global Citizenship Education (ECG) are often presented as derived from quasi-natural processes of pedagogical evolution. In this evolutionary thinking, ECG represents a more advanced stage of pedagogical innovation and, consequently, appears as the best and most comprehensive educational model. It is important to point out that in the period 1990-2019 two simultaneous trends seek to develop different models of citizenship. If the ECG seeks to develop a cosmopolitan global citizen, other pedagogical proposals aim to transform notions of citizenship by giving priority to the rights of a neoliberal "global consumer" over "global / civic" rights. This article reviewed 62 peer-reviewed articles on ECG and identified the predominance of an idealized redemptive pedagogical orientation that has many limitations and fundamentally does not confront the consumerist options offered by neoliberal pedagogical models

Tecno-esperanzas y educación pública en América Latina

La incorporación de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TICs) en los sistemas educativos de América Latina ha sido, al igual que en otros países de condiciones de desarrollo similares, un proceso desigual y complejo, marcado por numerosos problemas de eficiencia, acceso, equidad y justicia (Cuban, 2001; Demo, 2005; Everett, 1998; Tedesco, 2006). El propósito de este trabajo es analizar la perspectiva asumida respecto a estos problemas por parte de varios actores clave involucrados en los procesos de incorporación de las TICs en los sistemas educativos públicos de cuatro países latinoamericanos: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador y México. Los datos para la realización del artículo han sido obtenidos mediante la revisión crítica de bibliografía relevante sobre el tema y el análisis de la información obtenida a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas hechas a 75 informantes clave de dichos países

E-Hopes and Public Education in Latin America

La incorporación de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TICs) en los sistemas educativos de América Latina ha sido, al igual que en otros países de condiciones de desarrollo similares, un proceso desigual y complejo, marcado por numerosos problemas de eficiencia, acceso, equidad y justicia (Cuban, 2001; Demo, 2005; Everett, 1998; Tedesco, 2006). El propósito de este trabajo es analizar la perspectiva asumida respecto a estos problemas por parte de varios actores clave involucrados en los procesos de incorporación de las TICs en los sistemas educativos públicos de cuatro países latinoamericanos: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador y México. Los datos para la realización del artículo han sido obtenidos mediante la revisión crítica de bibliografía relevante sobre el tema y el análisis de la información obtenida a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas hechas a 75 informantes clave de dichos países.As has been the case in other regions, in Latin America the incorporation of information and communication technologies into the education systems has been an uneven and complex process, marked by numerous problems of efficiency, access, equity, and fairness (Cuban, 2001; Demo, 2005; Everett, 1998; Tedesco, 2006). The objective of this chapteris to analyze the perspectives taken on these problems by several key educational actors involved in the processes of incorporating information and communicational technologies (ICTs) into the public education systems of four countries: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Mexico. The data for this chapter have been obtained by reviewing relevant literature and by analyzing information obtained through semi-structured interviews with 75 relevant informants.Grupo FORCE Universidad de Granad